Some imaging apparatuses, such as digital cameras, are provided with image processing modes and photometric modes optimized for each photographed scene, such as a landscape photographing mode and a portrait photographing mode. For example, in the aforementioned landscape photographing mode, image processing is carried out with color reproduction such that the blue sky or green is more vividly reproduced, and in the portrait photographing mode, image processing is carried out with color reproduction such that the skin color of a person is clearly reproduced. By making a selection from these photographing modes provided in the imaging apparatus, a user can obtain an image subjected to processing optimized for each scene.
However, for such photographic processing modes, new modes are constantly developed, and new types of imaging apparatuses based on the new modes are sold. As a result, an imaging apparatus which has been just purchased soon becomes a functionally inferior, old-fashioned apparatus.
For solving the problem, a file (control program) for a new photographic processing mode is downloaded from a client server via a communication line and set in an imaging apparatus as in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-333417. For the imaging apparatus provided with this function, the user downloads a file for a new photographing mode and sets the file in the imaging apparatus after purchasing the imaging apparatus, whereby a photograph can easily be taken with an updated photographing mode.
Aside from the aforementioned technique, a configuration in which a RAW image (raw data image output from an imaging device) photographed by an imaging apparatus is developed on a personal computer by using a dedicated development application. In the development of an image on the personal computer, a photographing mode such as a scene or portrait mode can be selected to develop an image in the same manner as in the imaging apparatus in some cases.
However, for the technique proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-333417, a file set in a digital camera is described, but setting of the file in the development application is not mentioned. Therefore, image processing according to a photographing mode set in a digital camera cannot be reproduced by development application software.